Amazon Fire tablets are relatively low cost cost and very popular. Since the first models it has been possible to run the Android edition of Plant Base on Amazon Fire tablets (then called Kindle Fire). We have recently tested the latest version of the Plant Base app on a 7th generation Fire 7. It installs and runs perfectly and we have no reason to doubt that it will work equally well on newer generations and other model variants.
Tag Archives: Plant Base
Android Plant Base updated version
An updated version of the Plant Base Android app is released – version 1.42. Also a new version of its File Support app – 1.07.
This update has several bug fixes, mostly to resolve issues introduced in the previous version due to the larger changes required in adapting to newer Android releases. There are no other major changes.
Android Plant Base New Version – now FREE
An update for the Plant Base Android app is now available – version 1.41. Also a new version of its File Support app – 1.06.
The new versions resolve the problem of installing on the latest Android versions. They have been tested up to Android 14.
Android Plant Base not available on Google Play
The Plant Base for Android app and its small Data Support helper app have been removed from the Google Play store.
This is due to a restriction introduced by Google a little while ago and which comes into full enforcement in a few days. Although this change was introduced for the sake of improved security, it has an unfortunate impact on the Plant Base app. Compliance with the new standard would make the app unworkable as it conflicts with the basic design. Plant Base is very unusual because the app opens a large on-device database in a dedicated separate folder. This is no longer allowed for apps on Google Play, so there was no choice but to remove it from the store.
Plant Base Android now free for licensed users
The Android edition of Plant Base is now free for all users who already have a licence for the other editions. The APK for the app can be downloaded from the website after entering the licence code as validation. The app is then “sideloaded” onto the phone or tablet (instructions for the sideload install are on the web page).
Linux Plant Base Beta 13 update
A Beta 13 update for the Linux edition of Plant Base is available on the Downloads page. This fixes a scaling bug with the Print Preview display, which was introduced in version 2.1.15 Beta 12 due to a last minute attempt to improve the print quality problem that is a known issue for Linux program. The bug fix is the only change and the other editions are not affected.
Plant Base new version – 2.1.15
A new update of Plant Base has been released today and available on the Download page. This is for desktop/laptop editions – Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Primarily a maintenance release with the main objective of cleaning up and optimising some of the code. It also improves synchonisation between OS editions where a few sections had got out of step. The changes result in some improvement in run-time efficiency but the end-user will be very unlikely to notice any difference!
Plant Base update version – 2.1.14
An updated version of Plant Base has been released and is available on the Download page. This is for desktop/laptop editions – Windows, MacOS and Linux.
It is another maintenance update with a few small bug fixes plus some other little changes.
On the Plant List Details tab, the records can now be sorted by almost any of the fields (all except the GPS co-ords). This can be useful when doing project planning and was requested by several users.
There is also an enhancement to the local language selection, which has an additional option to replace common data records with translations, that is for things like colour names and plant types. It’s important to understand that this updates the database, so “power” users who make a lot of changes might need to consider this. Just like the text translation files, these new common data translation files can be created or amended by end-users – information is in the Help.
The Linux edition is now at Beta 11 and a free life-time licence is still available on request. This version has a few tweaks to the user interface to improve appearance for some desktop environments and themes. Certainly will not be perfect on every system, but looks very good on many! The more traditional DE’s such as Xcfe, MATE and Cinnamon tend to give the best appearance out of the box, but it’s often worth experimenting with the theme settings.
A revision of the plant data is included, bringing the database release to 31. There are some new plant records and pictures along with a large number of updates. Many of these are for plant name changes and plant family classifications. Some familiar plants now have different names – please don’t blame us for these, we are just trying to follow the main taxonomic authorities who make changes according to the latest scientific research (there are even more in the pipeline!). Of course we always include the older names as synonyms, so they can still be found in the database!
We recommend that all existing users update the new program version – easy, quick and safe. Loading the new database files is an optional choice, as usual all recent database releases are compatible with all program versions. Instructions to merge personal data are in the support section of the website.
Plant Base – new version 2.1.13
New update of Plant Base was released today and is available on the Download page. For all desktop/laptop editions – Windows, MacOS and Linux.
This is only a minor maintenance update with a few small bug fixes and other minor changes. For the Windows edition this includes support for the recently released update of Extra Keys.
However, there is one significant addition which is a new UI language option for Swedish. This excellent contribution was made Plant Base user Kenneth Williams and I’m very happy to include it in this release.
The Linux edition is now at Beta 10 and a free life-time licence is still available on request.
There is no change to the plant data at this time, it’s the same as the last two versions – but work on the next database release is in progress!
Plant Base for Linux – new Beta 9 update
There is an updated Linux program for Plant Base – Beta 9, which is still based on version 2.1.12. It’s now available on the Downloads page.
There are no functional changes but many small adjustments to the user interface. These are mainly to improve compatibility with a wider range of Desktop Environments and display themes.
Although the UI displayed fine on several common DE’s some others were quite ugly. The changes in this Beta make it a bit more forgiving, but it’s worth remembering that different theme settings can dramatically affect the display. Sometimes a few small tweaks to the theme settings can improve the appearance considerably!
As always a small update file is available for existing users as well as the full install file. The database itself is the same as the previous 2.1.11 and 2.1.12 releases.